ABSTRACT
The main point in the remonstrant confession of faith was the recognition of the bible as the sole repository of protestant doctrine, while human beings were left free to judge for themselves the value of formulas, confessions and catechisms. As a result of this freedom, the divergence between orthodox and remonstrant doctrines grew much greater than the subtle distinctions made by Arminius and Gomarus. The form of arminianism known in seventeenth-century England, with its episcopalian ritualism, never found favour in the Dutch Republic. The orangist party, on the other hand, suffered from a perennial duality. Its supporters inherited the democratic traditions of the early reformation. But the and the noblemen about them had something of the modernising tendencies of Philip II of Spain.
